Last year, the organisers of my village’s annual fete announced a newcomer in the prize roster. Among the usual rosettes for Straightest Runner Bean, Tastiest Jam and the much-coveted Best Quiche was an event titled: ‘Men Only: Swiss Roll (Recipe Provided)’. A men-only cooking category? Are you kidding me?
So many things about this concept get my goat. First off, note that the recipe is supplied to the poor dears, just in case they can’t manage to locate one and decipher it on their own... It’s that old-fashioned view of men and cooking: “Silly old men. Hopeless in the kitchen. Can’t even put on an apron without getting tangled up, let alone feed themselves.”
To suggest that men are universally hopeless at something simply because they are men is as bad as suggesting they are good at something because they are men. A men-only cooking category is just as sexist as a men-only carpentry category. Inverse sexism is still sexism.